NPA/Rwanda and Kageyo sector officials commend ADEPE’s work in Gicumbi District

“I’m grateful to ADEPE’s great work done by ADEPE,” said the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) Country Director, Senada Kahriman, on the 07^th November 2022. Meanwhile, Alexis Mutoni Kiloyi, Kageyo’s Notary and Civil Registration Officer on behalf of the Sector’s Executive Secretary said “We highly thank ADEPE for selecting Gicumbi and particularly Kageyo as the geographical scope of the project. We are also very grateful to NPA for funding the project.” “I seize this opportunity to affirm that the project is reducing disputes in families so that families are now only busy with their progress, and it’s even contributing considerably for teen pregnancies to decrease significantly.”

These officials stated it in a visit by an NPA delegation headed by Kahriman. The delegation visited ADEPE’s Community Safe Space [CSS] in Kageyo. CSS, translated into Kinyarwanda as Urugo rw’Amahoro [literally Household of Peace], is a house where Governance Focal Persons [GFPs] also known as Community Counselors receive citizens’ problems for solution. The visit constituted an opportunity for the delegation to learn more about the CSS role in gender-based violence prevention and response, and the peaceful resolution of conflict in families. The visit also allowed them to amply comprehend the role of the Community Score Card in raising citizens’ priorities for them to be incorporated into districts’ performance contracts.

The delegation met with the GFPs in Kageyo CSS. The GFPs had just received a person facing a problem which she wanted ADEPE to intervene to resolve. Then, the delegation took time to hear a testimony from one teen mother whom the program assisted, to have her baby officially registered and recognized by his father. The delegation also listened the testimonies of four GFPs met in the CSSH. All the GFPs maintained that the Public Policy Information, Monitoring and Advocacy [PPIMA] Project in which the appreciated work features is being significantly fruitful.

Mutoni acclaimed the work of the GFPs, and requested for their number to be increased so that they can manage to serve more people. He underlined that the CSS has become a mechanism perfectly trusted by community members. He said “Allow me to extremely thank these GFPs, this CSS has become an institution which the citizens trust without reservations; there are issues we are able to know, owing to this community safe space while we couldn’t actually know them, if it didn’t exist. Thus, I recommend that you should also give to the village leaders the same training as the one you’ve conducted for the GFPs, so that the village authorities may also be equipped with knowledge, skills and values enabling these GFPs to perform this commendable work. If trained, the village leaders would be better empower to help us intensely.”

ADEPE Executive Director, Gregoire Rucamumihigo, also thanked NPA for financing the project. He reassured NPA that ADEPE would perform every endeavor, for the project to continue succeeding and creating great changes in communities. He also thanked Gicumbi district officials for their great contribution to the success of the project in Gicumbi. He also recognized the great role of Kageyo and Rukomo sectors’ authorities for the success of the CSS. CSSs are in Kageyo and Rukomo sectors. That’s why Rucamumihigo suggested that such CSSs should be extended to some other sectors. “Seen the undeniable importance of the CSS, we would like to see more CSSs established in other places, so that more citizens can be served.”

NPA has funded ADEPE, to implement the project in Gicumbi, Musanze and Nyabihu districts. This attached document contains more details.

By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye,

ADEPE Deputy-Programs Manager.